I am a civil servant, to be exactly, I work in a foreign related department of a
provincial level government in China. For my working’s sake, I have the chances to go abroad with my leaders, mostly with mayors of the municipality. And there is another series of data, which I wanna share them with you: one, in central
government of China, the civil servant candidates and actually accepted rate is
50:1; second, in my city, there are more than 100 candidates running and taking
tests of course ( mostly a series of tests, both written and oral) for the position like mine. Then there comes the news that the salary of civil servant will be arising. Then you can see more candidates for one single position. In, at least, near future, I see no clue of this rushing-for-civil-servant trend will go down. So can you image the facial appearance when the people around hearing that I
want to quit my job?
I feel so sad when my relatives, not one, but one by one, comes to me trying to
persuade me to get rid of that so-called stupid idea about changing job. I feel
sorry about our education system, although myself, having ever been a part-time
teacher. Nowadays the “value” of the doctor degree is equal or less than the master degree several years ago, and so does the master degree to bachelor degree
. And for most graduated students when they step out school, they are jobless. But when I graduated, so few people wanted to work in government. Actually they either went abroad or for companies for huge money. However, after several years
of opening-up to the outside world, the people, especially the youth, not going
to be more aggressive like us at that time, become even more conservative. So what is civil servant? : Good reputation, because you are official, (it took me years to get used to the people especially the people whose age is older than me and whose rank is higher than me calling me as “leader”) Iron Bowl: sorry for this Chinese phrase, which means very very stable job. Unless you commit crime, there will be so so few chances for your leader to fire you from you position. Third, kept rising salary. Ok for most people I think it has already been attractive enough, rather to say my position of having chances to go abroad, and being promoted to the higher position in government then become a real politician.
I do not want to give any negative comment to the civil servant. It is farther than unfair to give this comment just because I want to quit it. And it is absolutely personal to me. So what I want to say, to my friends and foes, whose feel either merry or mad concerning about my quitting job, is a poem, which I quote from Robert Frost. And I share it with like this:
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.